Dawnseekers

Gaven Stark

The King of Winter

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Bio:

Gaven Stark is the oldest son of Lord Robert Stark, King of Winter, and his wife and Lady Queen Anias Reed. His sisters Molly and Anya were wed to Glovers and Tallharts, respectively, and he remained the lone son and heir to his father’s title and kingdom.

Gaven was a mere eight and ten years of age when his father fell during the Longest Night, but had been groomed from birth for his crown and had the blood of his ancestors running strong in his veins. He took to wife Lady Katy Hornwood, in itself a wise move both politically and genealogically. While his father and his grandfather had produced few sons, some Great Houses in The North were widely known for the size of their broods. The Hornwoods were such a line, and Queen Katy and King Gaven proved a fortuitous match. Despite leading his men in battle after bloody battle and commanding the vanguard of Westeros against the Others, Gaven and his lady wife produced eight children in the first eleven years of their marriage.

The positive outlook for House Stark and Gaven was not to endure, however. As the Longest Night dragged ever onward, the King of Winter met with sorcerers, skalds, scholars, soldiers, and soothsayers in a desperate attempt to find a way to defeat the White Walkers. Finally, having apparently come to an epiphany of some sort, he called all of his sons from their beds one night at the hour of the wolf and bade them prepare to travel. Though his queen wailed and begged him not to take them all with him, King Gaven was as icy and implacable as a glacier. He would not be stayed from his course, and all seven of the last men of House Stark set off towards The Wolfswood together.

Eight months later, Gaven returned home alone to Winterfell. He refused to speak to anyone as to what had befallen his sons. To his Queen he would only say that they had given their lives to end the war, and when pressed he turned upon her in such an icy rage that she never asked more. Although he was only six and thirty years of age, he appeared at least a decade older. Although the realm was saved, it is possible that his House was doomed. None may know whether he and Queen Katy may produce another son, and no other Stark heir remains alive. Seven years have passed since his return to Winterfell, and the years where he might father another son seem likely to draw to a close. And with them, perhaps the history of House Stark.

Since the lost of his sons, Gaven Stark has become almost devoid of emotion. He is not cruel, nor vindictive nor petty. Neither, however, is he ever mirthful or joyous. He seems numb to any of the most human moments of life since the loss of his sons, and although he rules wisely and efficiently, he does so in what appears to be an entirely emotionless fashion. His rulings are fair and impartial to a fault, lacking empathy and passion. No one seems to know if this will ever change, or if this is the King of Winter that the war against the Others has left behind.